Abstract: A system and method are provided for promoting internal mobility within an organization and, in particular, for recommending employees and/or teams of employees of the organization for a new project or for another role within the organization. Data reflecting employees' professional skills, reputation, productivity, experience, work histories and other attributes are collected and analyzed to produce relevance ratings for each of associated criteria. When criteria for a new team or role are provided, the system uses employees' relevance ratings for those criteria, and/or other factors, to recommend them for each role.

Abstract: Enabling a content publisher and a receiving user to control access to content updates based on user relationships. The content publisher and the receiving user may assign a relationship degree, relationship category, and/or relationship rating to each other and to other users. The content publisher and/or receiving user also specify a required relationship that is needed to access or accept a content update. The content publisher and receiving user may further specify acceptable types of content updates, such as blog entries, product reviews, photos, and the like that are accessible or acceptable. Upon logon or other event, a summary of content updates is provided to each receiving user that meets each content publisher's required relationship, and the content updates are delivered according to a selected delivery method from those content publishers that meet the relationship requirements of the receiving users. Delivery includes email, instant message, RSS feeds, and the like.

Abstract: Enabling a content publisher and a receiving user to control access to content updates based on user relationships. The content publisher and the receiving user may assign a relationship degree, relationship category, and/or relationship rating to each other and to other users. The content publisher and/or receiving user also specify a required relationship that is needed to access or accept a content update. The content publisher and receiving user may further specify acceptable types of content updates, such as blog entries, product reviews, photos, and the like that are accessible or acceptable. Upon logon or other event, a summary of content updates is provided to each receiving user that meets each content publisher's required relationship, and the content updates are delivered according to a selected delivery method from those content publishers that meet the relationship requirements of the receiving users. Delivery includes email, instant message, RSS feeds, and the like.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system are directed towards seeding a user's contacts for their online social network. The invention is arranged to automatically recommend to the user a set of seed contacts that the user may employ to invite to join their social network. The set of seed contacts may be harvested from the user's existing portal activities, as well as other sources. In one embodiment, the invention analyzes portal activity, such as email exchanges with the user, and the like, to determine a frequency of contact with the user. Other sources may include but not be limited to emails, names within an address book of the user, names within an address book of another person, a buddy list, an instant messaging list, an activity, a mailing list, an online discussion group, a membership in a category, chat group, and the like.

Abstract: A system, apparatus, and method are directed towards enabling information filtering using measures of an affinity of a relationship between subscribers of an online portal system. The affinity of a relationship may be determined based, in part, on the tracking of various online behaviors of and between subscribers of the portal system. Any of a variety of behaviors may be tracked, including message communications between subscribers, participation in instant messaging groups, purchases, activities, categories, and so forth. Such behaviors may be employed to determine a level of trust (or affinity) between subscribers of the portal system. This affinity measurement may be used to filter various information, including, but not limited to, product recommendations, ratings, polling queries, advertising, social network communications, personal ads, search results, and the like. Moreover, this affinity measurement may also be employed to perform message spam detection.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system are directed towards managing a view of a social network user's personal information based, in part, on user-defined criteria. The user-defined criteria may be applied towards a user's relationship with each prospective viewer. The user-defined criteria may include degrees of separation between members of the social network, a relationship to the prospective viewer, as well as criteria based, in part, on activities, such as dating, employment, hobbies, and the like. The user-defined criteria may also be based on a group membership, a strength of a relationship, and the like. Such user-defined relationship criteria may then be mapped against various categories of information associated with social network user to provide customized views of the social network user.